INFLUX OF CHINESE

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160712, 27 July 1920, Page 7

INFLUX OF CHINESE

"NOMINATED IMMIGRANTS.” Rather a new light is thrown on the Chinese question when it is realised that the four hundred and odd Chinese who have landed in Auckland since the beginning of the year are something in the nature of “nominated immigrants.” At least ninety-nine out of every hundred of them are said to have relatives in the Dominion—a father, a brother. or perhaps some more distant connexion—who sent home to China tha joyful news of the happy hunting ground that was to be found at this end of the Pacific Ocean. A prominent Auckland Chinese citizen, talking about the matter the other morning, indicated that the newcomers were not a haphazard lot of Chinamen in search of adventure. They had nearly all of them heard about the country from their relatives already here, and knew exactly the sort of place and work they could expect- Discussing the question of the poll-tax, he said the Chinese residents nnite approved of it being a substantial one of .£IOO, as that hurdle would naturally tend to ensure that only the better class of workmen would take the risk of coming into the country, knowing that they would have to work hard to pay hack the tax if they borrowed it. Without wishing to be invidious, he compared the class of Chinamen in New Zealand with certain other coloured immigrants who, he said, were not at all cf the same stamp.